Judge Denies Apple’s Attempt To Ban Samsung Devices In U.S.

Back in August, Apple took their South Korean rival to court with the lofty goal of having 26 Samsung devices banned from being sold in the U.S. for having violated various Apple patents. The case’s judge, Lucy Kho, has now come to a conclusion and she has decided that the patents that are being infringed on make up only a tiny portion of the functionality of Samsung’s devices. Because of this, there will be no ban on Samsung’s devices.

“The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents.” “Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple, it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions,” stated Koh.

Apple wasn’t the only one to have suffered a significant blow in this week’s ruling. Samsung’s request to have a new trial started due to supposed jury misconduct was also denied. Samsung argued that one of the jurors had been previously involved in a lawsuit against one of their partners, Seagate, and thus had a bias in the case. The judge, however, declared that Samsung could have discovered this fact before the trial with only a bit of diligence.

Those interested in reading some serious lengthy legal jargon can read both rulings here and here.